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Kicking Something Once Again

I have known about Kickstarter for a while, people talk about it a lot. I, however, like a modern day luddite, never even visited the website.

There are millions of knickknacks I’d love that already exist which I can’t afford, so I didn’t see the point in searching for new things to spend money on that might or might not happen someday. Ain’t getting my hopes up for vaporware, not anymore.

That only changed because a good friend, Tesh, went forward with his own project on Kickstarter.

Tesh has brought his design for Tinker Dice to Kickstarter in the hopes it will get fully funded and become a reality, and hey, when your bud goes for his dream, you’re there for him, right?

Unfortunately, it’s looking like unless there is a sudden big push at the last minute, Tinker Dice aren’t going to happen. There are only four days left for it to be fully funded. We can hope, though. It ain’t over yet. And assuming it ain’t gonna happen, Tesh says he has plans to fall back, regroup and come at it with a different angle. He’s not dead yet!

Tesh’s Tinker Dice have apparently become a gateway project for me, leading me to explore this whole Kickstarter thing you youngun’s created a bit closer.

It turns out, drooling over potential projects is a dangerous drug. It has me imaging all the awesome things you can do with 3D printers, board games, songs, etc and so forth.

It also has me thinking about the obvious jokes, like wondering when someone will come up with a Kinkstarter website.

Come on, you know somebody (besides me) thought of it already. Kinkstarter, the website where you post your ideas for new porn movies or devices, and hope the project becomes fully funded. With Backer rewards like being in the production. In this world, you know it’s only a matter of time.

Distractions aside, I’ve been browsing projects at Kickstarter, and there is a game there that is as close to a sure thing as anything I’ve ever seen.

There is this tabletop miniature tactical game called Warmachine, I’ve heard a ton about it, but I’ve never played it or seen it played. I’m well versed in the genre from playing Warhammer and Warhammer: 40K, so I grasp the basic concept. Just haven;’t had the chance to get my hands on any miniatures for it, and even if I did, I don’t know a single soul in the Twin Cities of Minnesota to play against.

And here’s the kicker, as it were. For $20, you can be a Kickstarter of it right now, and get the game when it is complete and have all of the extra in-game stretch goal content. It’s already fully funded so there is no worry as to whether it’s happening or not. This ain’t vaporware, they are way past their initial goals on this one.

In this case, you pays your money without taking any chances.

Oh, hard choice. Support the game, help them reach more stretch goals and get rewarded with even more multiplayer units, factions or options once the game goes live? yes, please.

Yes indeed, I threw my support behind it, and I’m darned excited to see the final game. A game with the promise of this one, for only $20? I can defer gratification for a year or more in the hopes that this will be even half as good as their promo makes it look.

If you like tactical games like Warhammer 40k, I strongly recommend you think about using Kickstarter to back this one. Who knows, you might get the chance to play against the Big Bear Butt in multiplayer and crush the very life out of me.

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2 thoughts on “Kicking Something Once Again”

Thanks for the mention! Yes, I’m pretty sure the Tinker Dice won’t make it this round. Just yesterday, though, I submitted a new campaign for Kickstarter approval for Tinker Dice 2.0, as it were; the same design, but starting in metal and maybe stretching to the Fudge/FATE design, also in metal. They will cost more per die, but hey, metal steampunky dice seem like a perfect mix. They fit well with WarMachine, too, as it happens. :) (Oh, and the goal will be $1,000 instead of $3,000, so that should be a Good Thing, too.)

I’m really excited that Privateer Press is doing this. I’ve long argued that Warhammer should do this and effectively translate their game from tabletop to digital. The Warhammer guys *have* made a lot of games in that IP/universe, but they aren’t really meant to be similar to the tabletop game. For whatever reason, they have resisted that particular blend. That the WarMachine guys are doing it is really cool, I think, since I’ve wanted to play the game for years, but don’t have the cash for minis and nobody to play against. I even have three of the core rulebooks that I’ve studied aside my dozen or so WarHammer books.

OK, and I’m a sucker for turn-based tactics games and steampunk. The Tinker Dice are obviously an outgrowth of this trend, and as it happens, the Fudge variant design even has a superficial resemblance to the Menoth faction in Warmachine. I didn’t do that on purpose, it’s just a natural result of making a plus shape with tools.

Oh, and yes, the cards are coming. I’m sending the designs to Bicycle today for approval. I’ll make the campaign for Kickstarter next week and submit it for approval there, hopefully for launch in a couple of weeks. I’ll sneak in a few previews on my blog when I get a minute, too.

I funded Project Eternity, and came pretty close to deciding to fund Torment, but held off. A game has to be pretty good to peel me away from WoW, and with Skyrim, Dragon Age 2, and GW2 basically sitting idle, I figure I should be more realistic about whether buying such things is worth it.

I do have friends who have invested heavily in the tabletop stuff, and it has turned out really well. My DM is now the possessor of about 500 new Reaper miniatures of all natures (the box was 17 lbs!) that he got for a pretty good deal, and I’m looking forward to the TPK experiences we’ll have on the new Dwarven Forge tile sets he also “backed” to order.